Non-Collusion Affidavits, Bid Signatures and Notaries: The Last 48 Hours Before Bid Day

Take an example. It is Wednesday at 3:30 PM, the paving bid is due Thursday at 2:00 PM, the number is approved and the bid bond came back from your agent this morning. Then you flip to page 18 and find the non-collusion affidavit with an empty notary block.

You still have time. That page is a sworn statement that your company put this bid together on its own, and it needs three things: the right signer, a notary if the form has a notary block, and delivery in the format the bid instructions demand. Call the signer and a notary now. Fill in the company blanks while you wait. Read the submission instructions before you book anything, because a remote notary session produces an electronic file and some buyers still want ink.

A low number does not rescue a bid with a missing oath. Below is how I run the last 48 hours: who signs, which forms need a notary, how to get one fast in Texas, what each line of the affidavit means, and the surety page that has cost low bidders the job. Bid Control by PorchRocket flags these pages the day a bid lands on your board; this guide is for when bid day is already close.

What does a non-collusion affidavit mean?

It means you swear, under oath, that your bid is your own: no price fixing with competitors, no fake bids, no deal to talk someone else out of bidding. The person who swears is the affiant. A notary gives the oath and fills in the certificate at the bottom of the page.

Buyers ask for it because collusion breaks sealed bidding. If three paving companies agree whose turn it is, the city pays more and the low bid means nothing. Los Angeles World Airports states its rule plainly: under Los Angeles Administrative Code Section 10.15, each bid must include an affidavit that it is “genuine, and not a sham or collusive.” LAWA’s non-collusion requirement page says bidders must notarize the affidavit and submit it with the bid, and that leaving it out “will render the bid/proposal non-responsive and will result in its rejection.”

Texas has asked for this promise a long time. A 1907 county purchasing law, quoted in Texas Attorney General Opinion JM-186, required the bidder’s manager, secretary or other officer to attach an affidavit that the bidder “is not a member of any trust, pool or combination of any kind.”

The affidavit does not certify that your estimate is right, and the notary never looks at your numbers. It covers the statements printed on that page. That is why the signer has to read them.

The signer also has to know the facts. In a 12-person shop the owner often approves the total while the estimator gathers sub and supplier quotes. Fine. Before the owner signs, spend five minutes with the estimator. Who did we talk to about this job? Did anyone outside the company see our number? Did another bidder ask us to sit this one out? If the answers are clean, sign.

Getting prices from your asphalt plant and your subs is normal and these forms do not forbid it. You are receiving their price. Showing your own bid price to a competing bidder is what they forbid.

How do you fill out a non-collusion affidavit?

Fill in the blanks on the agency’s own form, sign it in front of the notary, and let the notary finish the certificate. Do not retype the form or swap in a template from the internet. The buyer wants its page, with its wording.

Most non-collusion forms open with the same blanks. The LAWA affidavit form is typical: a venue line for state and county, the affiant’s printed name, the affiant’s title, the company name, and a statement tying the affiant to the bid. That last part matters. On the LAWA form the affiant swears “that he or she is the person whose name is signed to the attached bid/proposal.” So the person who signs the bid form signs the affidavit. Don’t split them.

Here is a filled preparation sheet for a made-up six-person paving company in Temple, Mesa Fork Paving LLC, whose manager is Elena Ruiz. The field names follow the LAWA layout; your agency’s form may order them differently.

Field on the buyer’s form	Example entry	Check before signing
State and county (venue)	State of Texas, County of Bell	Where Elena signs and swears, not the job
Affiant’s printed name	Elena Ruiz	Matches her photo ID
Title	Manager	Matches her authority in the company file
Bidder or firm	Mesa Fork Paving LLC	Same legal name as the bid form and the bond
Solicitation number	IFB 26-041	Copied from the current solicitation
Project, if asked	City parking lot mill and overlay	Matches the bid being submitted
Affiant’s signature	Blank until she is in front of a notary	Signed during the notarial act
Notary certificate and seal	Blank for the notary	Dated, signed, seal readable

The venue line trips people up. It records where the oath happened. If the form preprints “County of Dallas” and Elena swears in Bell County, tell the notary before anyone signs; the notary decides how to complete the certificate.

For an “affidavit of non-collusion template,” my answer is a blank copy of the buyer’s current form plus a preparation sheet like this one. The sheet saves typing. The form gets read and sworn fresh for every bid.

What you swear to, line by line

Each statement on a non-collusion affidavit is a separate promise, and the signer should be able to say yes to every one without a pause. Here is the LAWA form’s wording, with what each line means on a city paving bid.

What the LAWA form says	What it means for you
The bid “is genuine; that the same is not sham or collusive”	It is an offer you would sign a contract on, not a cover bid to make someone look cheap
“all statements of fact therein are true”	Everything else in the bid too: license numbers, references, years in business
Not made “in the interest or behalf of any person… not herein named or disclosed”	You are not fronting for another company
(a) Did not “induce or solicit anyone else to submit a false or sham bid/proposal”	You did not ask a friendly competitor to throw in a high number
(b) Did not agree “that anyone should refrain from bidding or withdraw their bid/proposal”	No “you take this one, I’ll take the next one”
(c) Did not try “to raise or fix the bid price… or any overhead, profit or cost element”	No comparing markup or labor rates with other bidders
(d) Did not share “their bid/proposal price or any breakdown thereof” except with the buyer or people with a financial interest	Your number goes to the buyer and your partners, nobody else

Line (d) is broader than most owners expect. LAWA’s version names a “bid depository” along with other companies and individuals. Your price and its breakdown stay inside the company until opening.

The LAWA statements (a) through (d) cover conduct “prior to the public opening and reading of bids/proposals.” That is the window the promise has to be true for.

Two situations make owners nervous. A sub who quotes three primes on the same job is ordinary and breaks nothing on this list. A teaming talk with another prime who might bid the same job against you is different. Settle that arrangement in writing, and get a lawyer’s read if it could look like an agreement not to compete, before anyone swears to line (b).

Does a non-collusion affidavit need to be notarized?

If the form has a notary block or calls itself sworn, yes: sign it in front of a notary, who gives you the oath. If it says “certify” or “under penalty of perjury” and has no notary block, your signature is enough.

In PorchRocket’s Bid Control data (October 2026), 23.4% of 295 Texas bid packets we read for required forms included a notarized form or a sworn affidavit, and 11.5% flagged a form for notarization outright. Call it one packet in four with a sworn page, and about one in nine where the packet itself tells you to see a notary. The gap between those numbers is forms titled “affidavit” where the packet never spelled out the notary step. Read the bottom of every return form, not only the checklist.

Texas gives buyers another option. Under Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 132.001, an unsworn declaration may stand in for an affidavit required by statute or by a requirement “adopted as provided by law,” if it is in writing, signed as true under penalty of perjury and carries the statutory jurat. Some agencies build that into their own forms.

The best-known example is the Texas Ethics Commission Form 1295. Its box 6 is an “UNSWORN DECLARATION” signed by the “authorized agent of contracting business entity.” No notary block. If a city checklist still says to notarize the 1295, it is out of date. Send purchasing the current form and ask which instruction controls.

I would not swap a buyer’s notarized affidavit for a homemade unsworn declaration the night before bid day. Whether Section 132.001 covers a city’s own bid form is a question for the city attorney, not for you at 9 PM. If you want to use it, ask in writing before the question deadline. Our guide to Texas bid forms covers which state forms apply; this page is about signing them.

The 48-hour signature plan

Two days out, find every signature and notary page, put a name next to each, and book the notary. Everything else in the last 48 hours waits on those appointments.

I start with the return checklist and the bid form. Then I search the PDF for sign, affidavit, sworn, notary, seal, attorney-in-fact, original and addendum. Search misses scanned pages, so I also flip through the return forms by hand.

Make one list with a row for every signature spot: page, form, signer, wet ink or electronic, notary or not, and whether it is due with the bid or after award. Packets often include the contract signature page for information only. You sign that after award. Leave it blank now.

When	What gets done	What you should have in hand
48 hours out	Find every signature and notary page; assign signers; book the notary	Page list with a signer on every row
48 hours out	Call the bond agent for the bond and its power of attorney	Bond package with matching names
36 hours out	Fill company blanks; send any last question through the official channel	Forms ready to sign
24 hours out	Sign and notarize; scan and open every file	Executed originals and readable PDFs
Bid-day morning	Check addenda count, replaced pages and the delivery method	Final checklist, then a submission receipt

These are my targets, not the agency’s. The question deadline probably closed days ago. If an instruction is still unclear, ask through the channel the bid names and follow the written instruction if nobody answers in time.

Even in a five-person office, get a second set of eyes. The owner reads the statements and the number. Someone else opens the final files, the ones that will actually be uploaded or sealed, and checks every signature page against the list. Our page-by-page bid package checklist covers the rest of the packet.

Who can sign a bid for an LLC or corporation?

Someone with authority to bind the company. For an LLC, that means its managers or members as the company agreement sets out, or an officer they have authorized; for a corporation, an officer the board has authorized, usually the president.

Texas law spells out where that authority starts. Under Business Organizations Code Section 101.251, a Texas LLC is run by its managers if the company agreement says it is manager-managed, and by its members if it says member-managed. If the agreement is silent, the certificate of formation decides. Section 101.254 makes governing persons and authorized officers agents of the company. For corporations, Sections 21.401 and 21.417 put the board in charge and have it elect a president and a secretary under the bylaws.

A job title, an ownership stake or the portal login does not settle it. The estimator who built the number, the office manager with the password and a 10% minority owner may all lack authority to commit the company to a $400,000 contract.

The wrong signer matters. A bid is an offer, and the buyer needs to know the company is bound if it accepts. A bid signed by someone without authority raises the same doubt as an unsigned one, and that doubt is a gift to the second-low bidder looking for grounds to protest. A notary stamp does not cure it. The notary confirms who appeared and swore, nothing about their authority.

In a small LLC I would have the managing member or manager sign every time. If the owner is on a job site three hours away, the estimator signs only if a written delegation is already in the company file.

Keep an authority record: each signer’s legal name, title, where the authority comes from and any limits, such as a dollar cap. Check the cap against the bid before the owner leaves town.

Names have to match too. If the truck doors say “Mesa Fork Paving” but the legal entity is “Mesa Fork Paving LLC,” use the legal name on the bid form, the affidavit and the bond. A trade name on one page and the LLC on another leaves the buyer asking who is bidding.

Some packets name the signer: “the person who signed the bid proposal” or “an officer of the firm.” Follow that even if several people have authority. If a consultant prepares your paperwork, plan the signing handoff in advance; our guide to who can fill out a government bid for you separates the work you can hand off from the parts you keep.

Do you need a corporate resolution or a seal?

Only when the bid asks for one, but keep a signing resolution on file anyway so you never write it the night before.

A corporate resolution records a board decision, here the decision that named people may sign bids and contracts. A secretary’s certificate attests that the resolution was adopted and who holds which office. An LLC does the same job with a written consent of its managers or members. Use the buyer’s form if it supplies one.

What goes into a signing authorization:

• Exact legal company name and entity type
• Name and title of each authorized signer
• What it covers: bids, contracts, bonds, change orders
• Any dollar limit, end date or project restriction
• Date approved and who certifies it

Have your attorney draft the wording the first time. After that it lives in your company file and gets updated when an officer leaves. A tidy PDF naming last year’s president causes the same trouble as no PDF.

Three different seals show up in bid packets. The corporate seal belongs to your company. The surety seal belongs to the bonding company and goes on the bond and power of attorney. The notary seal belongs to the notary personally. None substitutes for another.

If a form has a “corporate seal” spot and your LLC has no seal, ask purchasing whether to write “no seal” or leave it blank. Don’t buy an embosser at 6 PM to fill a box. Bid Builder keeps your signing resolution in the company file next to the forms that ask for it.

Which bid documents usually need a notary?

Sworn affidavits do, starting with the non-collusion affidavit and other eligibility affidavits; some bond forms carry a notary acknowledgment too. Price forms, addendum acknowledgments and Texas Form 1295 do not.

The table sorts the usual pages. The packet’s own instructions win when they differ, and a page called “certification” can still have a notary block.

Common bid document	Signature needed	Notary usually?	Who signs
Bid form or price sheet	Yes, ink or the portal’s e-signature	No	Person authorized to bind the company
Non-collusion affidavit	Yes	Yes when it has a notary block	Same person who signed the bid form
Non-collusion certification	Yes	No	Authorized signer
Addendum acknowledgment	Initials, signature or portal check, as told	No	Authorized signer
Corporate resolution or certificate	Yes, by the certifying officer	Sometimes	Corporate secretary, or LLC managers or members
Bid bond	Yes, by your company and the surety	Some bond forms have a notary block	Your authorized signer and the surety’s agent
Surety power of attorney	Issued and certified by the surety	Arrives completed	Surety officials; you check it, you don’t sign it
Texas Form 1295	Yes, an unsworn declaration	No	Authorized agent of the business
Other sworn affidavits (eligibility)	Yes	Yes when it has a notary block	The person the affidavit names

Count every signature spot on a bond, including the back page. Some bond forms separate your execution block from the surety’s, and one signature on page one tells you little.

Mark the forms due after award, too, so a contract page doesn’t eat an hour while a sworn affidavit sits unsigned.

Where can you get bid papers notarized fast?

For a bid due tomorrow, use the notary in your own office first, then your bank branch if you are a customer, then a mobile notary. Use remote online notarization only if purchasing has already said yes to it.

Call before driving. Say it is a sworn business affidavit, how many signers and how many certificates. Ask what ID each signer needs and whether all signers must be there together. Bank notaries keep their own hours, so confirm an appointment instead of trusting the lobby schedule.

Bring the full form with the company blanks filled in and any referenced attachments. The signer reads the page at the appointment, raises a hand or answers the oath, and signs in front of the notary. Dropping off a signed page for someone to stamp later is not a notarization.

The notary will not pick the certificate wording for you. The Texas Secretary of State’s notary FAQs say a notary “cannot select the type of notarial certificate used for any document unless they are also an attorney.” If the buyer’s form has no certificate, raise it with purchasing before the appointment.

Check the result before anyone leaves the room. Certificate dated? Right signer named? Notary signature there? Seal readable and not covering the text? A second trip is a lot harder once the owner heads back to the job.

For a paper bid, the original goes straight into the submission folder. For an upload, scan at full size and open the file on a computer; a phone photo with a clipped corner looks fine on the phone and terrible on purchasing’s monitor.

If the signer is unavailable, call your authorized backup. A courier can carry the packet. A courier cannot swear the oath.

What does notarization cost in Texas in 2026?

Up to $10 for an oath or affirmation with certificate and seal, plus up to $25 more if it is done online. Notaries may charge less or nothing at all.

Government Code Section 406.024 sets the ceilings, and Section 406.111 adds the online fee. The Secretary of State’s FAQ notes that “a lesser fee is allowed or no fee at all may be charged.” Fees are per notarial act, not per page.

Service	Most a Texas notary may charge (October 2026)	What to ask
Oath or affirmation with certificate and seal	$10	How many separate oaths does this packet need?
Acknowledgment	$10 for the first signature, $1 for each additional	One certificate for both signers, or two?
Online notarization	$25 on top of the regular fee	What is the total per document?
Travel or platform charges	Not a notarial fee; quoted separately	What is the full price, itemized?

The Secretary of State’s online notary guidance works the math: one signer online is $35, two signers on one certificate is $36, and two signers on separate certificates is $70.

On a bid packet with two sworn affidavits, the most you pay a notary in person is $20. Done online with separate certificates, the ceiling is $70. Either way the notary fee is the cheapest line in the bid. The expensive part is an owner driving back from a job site for a second appointment because the first visit missed a page.

Can Texas bid documents be notarized online?

Yes, Texas law allows it, but whether your bid can use it depends on the buyer. Texas authorizes remote online notarization under Government Code Chapter 406, Subchapter C; each agency decides whether it accepts the result for its forms.

A Texas online notary needs a separate online commission and must be physically in Texas during the session, according to the Secretary of State’s guidance; the signer can be anywhere. Section 406.110 requires identity checks over two-way audio and video. Section 406.1107 lets an online notary give an oath if the session is recorded and kept. The certificate must say the notarization was online, so purchasing will see it.

A video call with your office notary is not an online notarization. Neither is an e-signature. Book a provider set up for Texas online notarization and say the document is a sworn bid affidavit.

Ask purchasing first, in writing, through the channel the bid names. Sample wording:

For IFB 26-041, the non-collusion affidavit on page 18 requires notarization and bids are submitted through your portal. Will you accept a PDF notarized through Texas remote online notarization for this form? Is a paper original also required, and if so, where and by what deadline?

Name the form and the page. “We accept electronic bids” does not answer whether this affidavit, or the bond, needs an original. Save the reply with the solicitation.

After the session, keep the notarized file exactly as the provider sends it. Some carry digital signature data that breaks if you print, rescan or merge the PDF. If the portal wants one combined file, ask the provider how to combine it without stripping that data.

When the answer is yes and the signer is out of town, online notarization is the fastest route I know. When the answer is unclear and a paper original is due tomorrow, book an in-person notary and keep asking.

Should your office manager become a Texas notary?

Yes, if you bid often. For a shop sending two or more packets a month, an in-house notary saves a trip every time; for a bid a quarter, use the bank.

The steps, from the Secretary of State’s notary page: be a Texas resident, at least 18, with no felony or moral-turpitude convictions. Take the state’s education course through the SOS Notary Portal. Buy a $10,000 notary bond from a licensed surety company. Apply through SOSPortal. Then take the oath of office before another notary. The commission runs four years.

The state fees under Sections 406.007 and 406.010 total $21 ($10 to file the bond, $1 for materials, $10 for the commission). Since the rules adopted in December 2025, the education course costs $20 per attempt and needs at least 70% correct to pass. That is $41 in state fees on a first-try pass. The bond premium, stamp and record book are extra, and the bond agency quotes the premium.

Three limits to plan around:

• The Secretary of State’s FAQ says a notary should not notarize when they are “a party to the instrument or financially or beneficially interested in the transaction.” If your office manager signs the affidavit, someone else notarizes it.
• An office manager who owns part of the company, or earns a bonus on wins, should not notarize your bid affidavit either.
• The seal and record book belong to the notary, not the company, even if you paid for them. When that employee leaves, they go too.

Give the new notary time to keep the record book properly, and keep the stamp in their hands only.

Wet signatures versus portal signatures

Each form follows its own instruction. The portal’s e-signature covers what the portal says it covers; a separate affidavit that calls for ink and a notary still needs both.

Texas law accepts electronic signatures. The Uniform Electronic Transactions Act, Business and Commerce Code Section 322.007, says a signature “may not be denied legal effect or enforceability solely because it is in electronic form.” Section 322.005 limits that to parties who agreed to deal electronically, and Section 322.017 lets each state agency decide how far it accepts electronic records. The buyer’s instructions are where that agreement shows up, so they control.

Read the packet at two levels. How is the offer signed and submitted? How is each supporting form signed? A Bonfire or IonWave bid might take a typed name and a checkbox for the offer while requiring an uploaded, notarized affidavit. Another bid might take everything online except the original bid bond, delivered by hand. Put both on your list.

Before closing, open every uploaded file and look at the signature pages. Make sure the portal account submitting the bid belongs to someone with authority, because that final click submits the company’s offer.

Addenda need their own check. The buyer may want initials next to each addendum number on the bid form, a signed acknowledgment page, a portal checkbox, or more than one. Count the addenda on the agency’s posting and match your acknowledgments to that count.

If addendum 2 replaces the bid sheet, sign the new sheet; the old one is dead. Check whether the change affects the bond amount or anything an affidavit describes. Our sealed-bid submission guide covers the final delivery and receipt.

The power of attorney that rides with the bid bond

A surety power of attorney proves the person who signed your bond for the surety had authority to do it. Leave it out when the bid requires it and the low bid can be thrown out.

The surety’s signer is usually called an attorney-in-fact. That means an authorized agent for this purpose, not a lawyer. Your company resolution authorizes your signer; the surety’s power of attorney authorizes theirs. You need both.

Riverside, California’s Bid 8248 tabulation and award recommendation shows what happens without it. Seven companies bid the Orange Terrace Community Park playground and resilient surfacing job. JMJ Construction was low at $115,000. The city marked it unresponsive for “Missing Power of Attorney documentation with bid bond” and recommended Jaynes Brothers Construction at $125,252.37. The recommended award ran $10,252.37 above the low bid. The missing page is one your bond agent supplies.

Before the bond goes in the envelope, compare:

• Your legal name on the bond with the bid form
• The obligee (the agency), project name and solicitation number
• The bond amount or percentage with what the bid requires
• The surety signer’s name with the attorney-in-fact named on the power of attorney
• Any dollar limit on that power of attorney against the bond amount
• Every seal, signature and date the packet asks for

Send your bond agent the whole bid-security section, plus any addendum that touches it. Ask for the bond and the power of attorney together, as one package. If anything does not match, the agent fixes it; you don’t edit a surety document.

Keep a current power of attorney in your company file for reference, but get a fresh bond package for each bid. For how bid bonds work and what they cost, see our bid bond guide.

Can you fix a missing signature after bid opening?

Usually not. A buyer can waive a minor defect, but a missing signature or sworn affidavit often goes to whether you are bound at all, and that is rarely minor.

The federal case JRW Enterprises, B-238236 shows the line. A Navy shuttle bus bidder, low at $85,870, left its bid form unsigned. GAO restated the general rule: “an unsigned bid must be rejected as nonresponsive because without an appropriate signature, the bidder would not be bound.” The bid survived only because a signed certification form in the same envelope referred to the bid and showed intent to be bound. The second bidder, at $97,497.75, lost the protest.

Texas has an answer for affidavits specifically. In JM-186, the Dallas County criminal district attorney asked whether a bidder could notarize a required affidavit after the bid opening date. The Attorney General’s answer: when the affidavit is required, “it must be affixed to the bid when submitted and may not be notarized after the official bid opening date.” That opinion addressed one older county statute, but I would plan every Texas bid as if it applies.

If you catch a problem before the deadline, use the buyer’s resubmission or withdrawal process. On some portals, replacing a file pulls the bid back to draft until you submit again, so confirm the status reads submitted and save the new receipt. A corrected PDF on your desktop changes nothing.

If opening has passed and your bid is rejected, keep the files you submitted and the receipt. Ask for the written reason and the protest deadline. If the page the agency says is missing was in your submission, point to it by page number. Bring in a procurement lawyer when the job is worth fighting for. The guide to non-responsive bids shows how agencies separate a fixable defect from one that ends the bid.

Bid Builder flags the notary page days ahead

Bid Builder finds the notary pages and signature blocks the day a bid lands on your board, so the last 48 hours go to signing, not searching.

For an owner who reviews the number and sends the bid, this is the plan I would pick. The repeat work on every bid is finding each sworn page and filling the same company details again. Bid Builder in Bid Control handles both:

• A step-by-step walk through every form the buyer wants, with each page that needs a notary or a wet signature flagged when the bid lands, not the day before it is due.
• Your Bid Passport, the company file: legal name, signing resolution and each signer’s authority, so the right name goes on every page.
• Notarized templates and last year’s executed affidavits kept for reference, so you fill the new form in minutes and swear it fresh.
• Your bonding letter and surety power of attorney on file, ready to check against the signer on each new bond.
• Addenda attached to the bid as they post, so a replaced bid sheet never gets missed.
• A bid expert you can text when a form, a seal box or a notary instruction has you stuck, and we open your first two bid-portal accounts for you.

The first packet is the slow one, because the company file is still filling up. By the third bid, the authority records, the notary checklist and the bond paperwork are already there, and the work is reading the new statements and signing them.

If you would rather hand off the paperwork, Bid Team prepares every form, notary page and deadline with you on dates we agree; you make the final call on your number, you sign and you send. Or talk to Rafael about your next packet on a free 15-minute call.

Find the sworn pages on day one and bid day becomes an upload instead of a scramble.